Well, finishing up some reasearch and deciding how much scale detail I want to add, the question is should I monokote, or fiberglass or something else to get that realistic weathered finish. I am leaning towards fiberglass, but never used it so I am really looking for some advice on this one.

I would suggest a little research on Water Based Polyurethane and cloth or Sig Koverall.

What kind of plane? And I pretty much agree with bps. Love koveral. More effort to apply but stays taught, no wrinkles. There is a thread on here someplace about a guy using wbpu to stick koveral to the frame. I use stix-it. Works great.
Edwin

If it's a fully sheeted plane I would use 1/2 oz glass and poly U. For paint you may want to take a look at the Klass Kote or war bird colors. Both are two part epoxy paint and bullet proof. Then you can weather with an air brush. Both paints are high dollar but worth it in the long run.

I will start researching polyurathane and Koverall. As for the plane, it is a Royal F4U Corsair and I would like to paint it in the corret colors and pattern as well as some reasonable weathering and scale detail.

I've used all kinds of covering, it's really up to you and your paitence, using koverall is probabily your best choice, but it's much more time consuming, but like mentioned before, it will not sag or loosen up over time, dope finish is fine but most people can't stand the smell, recently, I discovered nelson hobbies paint, this can be painted onto any fabric, it's water based poly and they have a additive that makes it fuel proof to 25% nitro. I decided to give it a try on my jungmiester recover job with koverall, the covering is super tough, the finish is scale looking and the paint once left to cure is almost impossible to scratch off, even when I streach the covering and distort the surface, I hit it with a little heat and back it goes and the paint never chips, cracks or flakes off. The other bonous, it has no smell and can be sprayed inside with very little ventalation if none at all.

Just wondering here. Plastic film doesn’t add much in the way of strength, fiberglass or poly adds strength and some weight and silk (or equivalent) is about the same as plastic film.
Isn't the idea to seal the wood?
Why couldn’t I just seal the structure with poly or a thin epoxy finishing resin to seal the wood, sand and fill to desired finish and then paint? Would cut down on the weight, add about the same strength as the silk or plastic film and still allow for the paint?

I doubt you will be able to get rid of the grain of the balsa. On top of that it will take a bunch of filler, sanding and so on. You will also run the risk of cracking when the balsa absorbs moisture and then dries out. Koveral and poly seem like the best option to me with the least amount of work. It will take a lot less filler to fill the covering weave than it would take to fill the basa grain in my opinion.

I haven't done it yet, but I have the idea to put aluminum colored Monokote on my Corsair, then paint it with navy blue Rustoleum. I figure if any Rustoleum chips off, it'll just look that much more realistic. I have painted covering with Rustoleum and it came out great and lasted well, too. Very fuel proof.

Before you do any covering with poly U you have to give the plane two coats of sanding sealer to keep it from absorbing into the wood. If you don't it also just wastes the Poly. About 80% of the poly used gasses or drys off so you aren't leaving behind a lot of extra weight. Most the time it's people using too much paint that causes the plane to come out heavy. If you don't want to try glassing then give the Solar Tex covering a thought, it comes in the main colors you want and takes to paint very well.

Well, I do beleive i will get some Poly and koverall to git it a try. Just did some fiberglass on a test plane.

actually you can get rid of the pores and grain in the balsa. after i put a proper coat of sanding sealer i then paint a few coats of watered down hobbylite balsa filler all over the project. then i sand it all at once. no filling just painting. and sanding.

and something i've yet to try is some of the scale builders use lightweight drywall mud to skim their project. since these guys use epoxy on their cloth it supposedly seals the mud against cracking. i haven't tried it since i use water based polycrylic on my cloth.

here is the link for the thread that i did using wbpu and koverall. hope this helps http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8088219/tm.htm

Thanks for the link Andrew. I will give that a try. The group has been very helpful and I am certainly learning a lot here. I have plenty of ventilation so I really am not worried about fumes.

I’m just looking for an easy way to get a nice finish. I am quickly finding that there is no easy way. There are however ways that will allow certain things to be done. Since I really would like to use a realistic paint scheme without the hard lines plastic gives, some kind of fiberglass or cloth covering and paint is the only way to go. It will probably come down to what will work successfully for me. I have done the silk/dope thing. It was not for me.

Tried the fiberglass and epoxy 1:1 at first then the 1:1:1 with alcohol to thin it. Was better. I will try the Koverall and poly and see where the chips fall.

During my early research though, the on the Sig site I find this about the poly.

“brush-on surfacing resin for sealing balsa and creating a glass-smooth durable base for epoxy or enamel paint.
It has a thinner viscosity than regular Sig Glass Resin for maximum penetration into the wood.
· Simply brush Finishing Resin onto the bare balsa.
· Before the resin cures, squeegee off any excess resin with a plastic epoxy spreader or ordinary stiff playing card.
· Wipe off any runs or drips with a paper towel.

Finishing Resin also works great for fuel-proofing engine compartments. Because of its thin viscosity, Finishing Resin is not recommended for molding fiberglass parts - use Sig Polyester Glass Resin instead. Finishing Resin must be chemically activated with "hardener" in order to cure. It absolutely will not dry unless hardener is added! Because the amount of hardener required can vary slightly depending on the curing time desired, we feel it is a better value to buy the resin and hardener separately.�
This reads like you do not need any fabric at all. But I am still looking, and I have never used it, so I will head the experience of those that have and try it that way first.

I went to completely scale .com and kinda followed his instructions, I used the sanding sealer and Poly U he used anyway. I like the lighter glass and my last two coats of Poly I mixed it 50/50 with baby powder just to make sure the weave was filled. Almost all of this stuff sanded off and the plane came out very light and strong. There are just a lot of new/better ways to glass these days. Glassing is a lot more work then covering but the finish comes out great!!!

This is pictures of two different materials, the Quickie is your traditional epoxy glass coated structure, yes there is glass in the resin, it's only .75 oz, very thin, but this is a 1/2A plane and weight is critical, but I like the durability of epoxy glass finishes, the other is your traditional Koverall, it's not sealed or painted yet, but this can be done in either way poly u or dope finish, the weave can be left to show or it can be filled.

Well, went to order some koverall and poly, but they were out of koverall will have to wait till more is avaiable. But I plan on trying it.

I would highly recomend reading this thread by Tom Pierce his SBD Dantless is top notch http://www.tompierce.net/SBD/index.htm
he does comparisons on finishes, with weights, and tecniques, his detailing is right up there with the best of them.
its where I learned about using water based poly for glassing planes, it provides a great surface for painting and is easy to do.

WOW, this guy was asking the same question. I guess I should read this. Thanks

Well, got some Koverall, resin for the koverall and resin sealer. will do a bit more reading again on the threads provided here and give something a try. Thanks for the help and I will keep you in touch

Covering.. the magic and the frustration...
Have been building RC kits since early 70's. First was silk and dope... Then Coverite, then Monokote..
A while back I inherited a Sig 1/4 scale clipped wing cub. Been flying it as it was... Not sure of the covering that was painted, but age hasn't been friendly to the appearance. It's still airworthy, but ugly..
Plan is to strip it, freshen up anything that needs it, then recover it a proper color scheme (CUB YELLOW or Hazel Sig's light blue and white. Shiny Monokote won't do it....
Thinking of a pre-colored fabric type covering.
Looking for a recommendation with do's and don'ts.

Thanks for any help. Got2retire AMA83238

I just covered a Dr1 with Oratex and it really worked out great